In Galaxies Like Grains of Sand, Brian W. Aldiss tells the tale of mankind's future over the course of forty million years. Each of these nine connected short stories highlights a different millennia in which man has adapted to new environments and hardships.This ebook includes a new introduction from the author. Views: 122
Elena bears the mark of the wit'ch upon her palm, the crimson stain that testifies to an awesome power of unimaginable potency: wild, seductive, difficult to control. Only a mistress of blood magick can stand against the foul minions and all-corrupting evil of the Dark Lord. But Elena is not yet the mistress of her magick. Protected by an ageless warrior and a band of renegades, she quests for a lost city where prophecies speak of a mystic tome that holds the key to the Dark Lord's defeat. But if the Dark Lord finds her first, Elena will become his most fearsome weapon . . . Views: 122
The narrator of this audaciously comic début novel, the scion of the last Hawaiian landowning clan, has floated through his privileged life: marriage to a model given to "speedboats, motorcycles, alcoholism"; children getting into trouble (cocaine, bullying) at élite schools; membership at a century-old beach club that rejects those with "unfavorable pedigrees." But when a catamaran accident leaves his wife in a coma he must wake from his own "prolonged unconsciousness," reacquaint himself with his neglected daughters, and track down his wife’s lover. Meanwhile, his cousins are urging him to sell the family’s vast landholdings for development—to relinquish, in his eyes, the final vestige of their native Hawaiian ancestry. Hemmings channels the voice of her befuddled middle-aged hero with virtuosity, as he teeters between acerbic and sentimental, scoffing at himself even as he grasps for redemption. Views: 122
The new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Descendants—a hilarious and charming story about a quirky single mom in San Francisco who tiptoes through the minefields of the "Mommy Wars" and manages to find friendship and love.When Mele Bart told her boyfriend Bobby she was pregnant with his child, he stunned her with an announcement of his own: he was engaged to someone else. Fast forward two years, Mele's daughter is a toddler, and Bobby and his fiancée want Ellie to be the flower girl at their wedding. Mele, who also has agreed to attend the nuptials, knows she can't continue obsessing about Bobby and his cheese making, Napa-residing, fiancée. She needs something to do. So she answers a questionnaire provided by the San Francisco Mommy Club in elaborate and shocking detail and decides to enter their cookbook writing contest. Even though she joined the group out of desperation, Mele has found her people: Annie,... Views: 122
Amy Scott-Simon, a beguilingly pretty young New York heiress, is engaged to marry Max Diamond, an older, powerful real estate tycoon, when at her bachelorette party she runs into Jett, Max+s younger half-brother-fresh from Italy, where he is a successful male model.-A one-time drug addict now in the program, Jett has no idea who Amy is.-She also doesn+t realize who he is.- A one-night fling leads to complications and regrets.Meanwhile, Chris Diamond, a hot L.A. entertainment lawyer, flies into town to meet with his two brothers and Red Diamond, the boys+ billionaire father, a dysfunctional, abusive bully.Working as Red+s housekeeper is Diahann, a beautiful black ex-singer. Her stunning bi-racial nineteen-year-old daughter Liberty, a waitress and would-be singer herself, does not approve of her mother working as a housekeeper.-Liberty has dreams of her own, and while she pursues them, Damon P. Donnell, married hip-hop mogul supreme, pursues her.And then there is Mariska, Max+s Russian socialite ex-wife, a woman with more secrets than anyone, secrets that ultimately lead to her brutal and mysterious murder.As the lives of these characters intertwine over a seven-day period in New York, power, love, sex, money, and fame are the ties that bind-emotionally and otherwise-in this highly charged love story about family relationships, deadly choices, and dangerous sex.Created By Tshirtman Views: 122
"Mitchell James Kaplan [brings] his impressive knowledge of history, composition, and the heart's whims to bear on this shining rendition of Swift and Gershwin's star-crossed love." —Therese Anne Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of Z and A Good Neighborhood "A lilting, jazzy ballad as catchy as a Gershwin tune...Rhapsody will have you humming, toe-tapping, and singing along with every turn of the page." —Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network and The HuntressOne evening in 1924, Katharine "Kay" Swift—the restless but loyal society wife of wealthy banker James Warburg and a serious pianist who longs for recognition—attends a concert. The piece: Rhapsody in Blue. The composer: a brilliant, elusive young musical genius named George Gershwin. Kay is transfixed, helpless to resist the magnetic pull of George's talent, charm, and... Views: 122
Her Harvard-student son just eloped with the First Daughter. CNN is parked on the road to her apple orchards. Secret Service agents have commandeered her country kitchen. The irate First Parents are threatening to have her taxes audited. The President's handsome, tough, ex-military nephew is setting up camp in her guest room. Hush McGillan's quiet Appalachian world of heirloom apples, country festivals, and carefully guarded family secrets has just been flipped like one of her famous Sweet Hush Apple Turnovers. What do you do when your brand-new-in-laws are the First Family, and they don't like you any more than you like them? And what happens next when you find yourself falling in love with the man they sent to unearth all your secrets? From the White House to the apple house, from humor to tears and sorrow to laughter, get ready to fall in love with Sweet Hush. Views: 122
A metaphysical detective story about love and existence from the Italian master, Antonio Tabucchi. When Tadeus sets out to find Isabel, his former love, he soon finds himself on a metaphysical journey across the world, one that calls into question the meaning of time and existence and the power of words.Isabel disappeared many years ago. Tadeus Slowacki, a Polish writer, her former friend and lover, has come back to Lisbon to learn of her whereabouts. Rumors abound: Isabel died in prison under Salazar's regime, or perhaps wasn't arrested at all. As Tadeus interviews one old acquaintance of hers after the next, a chameleon-like portrait of a young, ideological woman emerges, ultimately bringing Tadeus on a metaphysical journey across the continent. Constructed in the form of a mandala, For Isabel is the spiraling search for an enigma, an investigation into time and existence, the power of words, and the limits of the senses. In this posthumous work Tabucchi creates an... Views: 122
Review'A masterpiece of compression. A political history of 1930s Portugal, a love story between a man and his dead wife, a gloriously successful formal experiment, and an irresistible thriller - and it can be read with enormous pleasure in a single afternoon.' - Mohsin Hamid 'Pereira Maintains is small only in size. Its themes are great ones - courage, betrayal, fidelity, love, corruption; and its treatment of them is subtle, skilful, and clear. It's so clear, in fact, that you can see a very long way down, into the heart of a flawed but valiant human being, into the sickness of a nation, into the depths of political evil. It's the most impressive novel I've read for years, and one of the very few that feels truly necessary.' - Philip Pullman 'Close to being a perfect novel - brief, tragic, inspiring' - John Carey, Chairman of the International Man Booker 2002 'Pereira is a marvelously complex creation. One of the most intriguing and appealing character studies in recent European fiction.' - Kirkus Reviews Product DescriptionIn the sweltering summer of 1938 in Portugal, a country under the fascist shadow of Spain, a mysterious young man arrives at the doorstep of Dr Pereira. So begins an unlikely alliance that will result in a devastating act of rebellion. This is Pereira's testimony. Views: 122
So many secrets are buried within these compound walls. I used to be one of those secrets.After returning to the Diotech compound and undergoing an experimental new memory alteration, Seraphina is now a loyal, obedient servant to Dr. Alixter and the powerful company that created her. Happy and in love with Kaelen, another scientifically-enhanced human designed to be her perfect match, Sera's history with a boy named Zen is just a distant memory from a rebellious past she longs to forget.But as Sera and Kaelen embark on a nationwide tour to promote Diotech's new product line—a collection of controversial genetic modifications available to the public—Sera's mind starts to rebel. She can't stop the memories of Zen from creeping back in.As more secrets are revealed, more enemies are uncovered, and the reality of a Diotech-controlled world grows closer every day, Sera will have to choose where her true loyalties lie, but it's a choice that... Views: 122
41 Japanese, Scandinavian, and Sicilian tales: "The Snow-Queen," "The Cunning Shoemaker," "The Two Brothers," "The Merry Wives," "The Man without a Heart," and more. 69 illustrations. Views: 122
James Patterson believes The Black Book is his best thriller ever. The Red Book is even better.For Detective Billy Harney, getting shot in the head, stalked by a state's attorney, and accused of murder by his fellow cops is a normal week on the job. So when a drive-by shooting on the Chicago's west side turns political, he leads the way to a quick solve. But Harney's instincts — his father was once chief of detectives and his twin sister, Patti, is also on the force — run deep. As a population hungry for justice threatens to riot, he realizes that the three known victims are hardly the only casualties. When Harney starts asking questions about who's to blame, the easy answers prove to be the wrong ones. On the flip side, the less he seems to know, the longer he can keep his clandestine investigation going ... until Harney's quest to expose the evil that's rotting the city from the inside out takes him to the one place he vowed... Views: 122
2012 MAN BOOKER PRIZE LONGLISTED. Swimming Home is a subversive page-turner, a merciless gaze at the insidious harm that depression can have on apparently stable, well-turned-out people. Set in a summer villa, the story is tautly structured, taking place over a single week in which a group of beautiful, flawed tourists in the French Riviera come loose at the seams. Deborah Levy's writing combines linguistic virtuosity, technical brilliance and a strong sense of what it means to be alive. Swimming Home represents a new direction for a major writer. In this book, the wildness and the danger are all the more powerful for resting just beneath the surface. With its deep psychology, biting humour and deceptively light surface, it wears its darkness lightly.Review'Deborah Levy's storytelling is allusive, elliptical and disturbing. Her touch is gentle, often funny and always acute - This is a prizewinner.' Julia Pascal, The Independent ---- A stealthily devastating book - Levy manipulates light and shadow with artfulness. She transfixes the reader - This is an intelligent, pulsating literary beast.' Philip Womack, The Daily Telegraph ---- 'Swimming Home is a statement on the power of the unsaid. Magisterial - Themes, phrases and images recur in rhythmic cycles through this fugal novel. Levy's cinematic clarity and momentum convey confusion with remarkable lucidity.' Abigail Deutsch, TLS ---- 'Deborah Levy has made something strange and new - spiky and unsettling. In Swimming Home, home is elusive, safety is unlikely, and the reader closes the book both satisfied and unnerved.' John Self, The Guardian ---- 'Swimming Home is as sharp as a wasp sting.' Christina Petrie, Sunday Times ---- 'A compact treasure.' Boyd Tonkin, in his round-up of the year's best fiction, The Independent ---- 'Dark, sometimes humorous, intriguing and tragic, Levy's tale held me captive from its dramatic beginning' Lucy Popescu, The Tablet ---- 'Levy's strength is her originality of thought and expression.' Jeanette Winterson ---- 'I made notes to read as much as I can find by Deborah Levy' Bookslut.com ---- 'She is one of the few contemporary British writers comfortable on a world stage.' New Statesman ---- 'The strange brilliance of her imagination' The Independent ---- 'Levy is an exciting writer, sharp and shocking as the knives her characters wield.' Sunday Times About the AuthorDeborah Levy writes fiction, plays and poetry. Her work has been staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and she is the author of highly praised books including Beautiful Mutants, Swallowing Geography (both Jonathan Cape) and Billy and Girl (Bloomsbury). Views: 122
